“The postman wants an autograph. The cab driver wants a picture. The waitress wants a handshake. Everyone wants a piece of you.”
John Lennon

vineri, 8 martie 2013

Success 2013: Vic Seixas, American former tennis player, cited as being the World No. 1 in newspaper Reading Eagle in 1953. He is currently the oldest living male Grand Slam singles champion

Elias Victor Seixas, Jr. (born August 30, 1923) is an American former tennis player.Seixas was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of PortugueseSephardi Jewish ancestry. After serving in World War II, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where he was a member of Alpha Sigma of the Chi Psi fraternity. He graduated in 1949, the same year that UNC awarded him the Patterson Medal in athletics.
Thirteen times he was ranked in the Top Ten in the U.S. between 1942
and 1966. In 1951 Seixas was ranked No. 4 in the world, two spots below Dick Savitt, while he was No. 1 in the U.S. ranking, one spot ahead of Savitt. In 1953, Seixas was ranked No. 3 in the world by Lance Tingay, and was also cited as being the World No. 1 in newspaper Reading Eagle the same year.
.He is currently the oldest living male Grand Slam singles champion.

In a very long career, Seixas won scores of singles, doubles, and
mixed doubles titles. His career was interrupted for three years by World War II, during which he served as a pilot in the United States Army Air Forces. He also became an All-American during his years at UNC.
His major singles wins include Wimbledon in 1953 over Kurt Nielsen and the U.S. National (U.S. Open) in 1954 over Rex Hartwig.He was also a great doubles and mixed doubles player, in which his
major victories include: four consecutive mixed doubles crowns at
Wimbledon from 1953–56, the first three with Doris Hart and the fourth with Shirley Fry; the U.S. National mixed doubles from 1953–55, all with Doris Hart; the U.S. National doubles in 1952 with Mervyn Rose and again in 1954 with Tony Trabert; the French National (French Open) doubles in 1954 and 1955, both with Trabert; the French National mixed doubles in 1953, with Doris Hart; and the Australian National (Australian Open) doubles in 1955, with Trabert.
In 1966, Seixas was rated as the Senior Squash Champion of America.
Seixas and Trabert won the Davis Cup in 1954, against Australia. Seixas is rated fifth in the category of Most Davis Cup Singles matches (24), just behind Bill Tilden (25) and Arthur Ashe (27). He served three times as Captain of the US Davis Cup team. He was 38–17 lifetime in Davis Cup matches.

The 6-foot-1, 180-pound right-handed Seixas was an attacker who won more
on determination and conditioning than on outstanding form. His
volleying was exceptional, and he had an excellent match temperament,
but a thrashing topspin forehand and sliced backhand were utilitarian.

Seixas was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971.
He was inducted into the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic Hall of Fame.A first rate athlete who considered himself “a frustrated baseball
player,” Vic Seixas was an enduringly successful tennis player who made
the most of himself in that venture. Seixas competed at the U.S.
Championships at Forest Hills no fewer than 28 times from 1940 to 1969,
setting a record in the process. On his last appearance he was 46 years
old. Seixas, a relentless attacking player who packaged the serve
skillfully with the volley, won Wimbledon at 29, took the championship
of his country the following year, and was a prime contributor to the
U.S. Davis Cup triumph of 1954.